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Chronicles of the Camarilla's Deathknight (Exalted/World of Darkness)

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BlueHelix said:
That makes sense, yeah. It's not like we can IC seek out a Monstrance either, I think.

Actually, I'm curious -- what is an Abyssal Exalt in your canon / Exalted Essence? Considering this is a Vamp quest, I assume they do need to consume blood and dead flesh to regain Essence, and there is a name giving up stuff, but are we going to have to balance Deathlord Orders and Leila orders? Is there a Monstrance that can be destroyed to make us a "free" Exalt and stop the Resonance?
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Exalted Essence doesn't mention the Monstrance and heavily downplays the whole "Deathlord" thing. Likewise, in Exalted vs World of Darkness (which I'm stealing some lore from), Deathlords* aren't a thing and neither are Monstrances. I think it simplifies things to go with those assumptions: I'm more concerned with what you're going to do with your power and getting you entangled in vampire politics and shit than forcing you to obey the dictates of some ancient ghost anyway. So to that end, I'm having the Abyssal Exaltation choose its host independently much like a Solar Exaltation.

Regarding the blood drinking, in Exalted Essence, Abyssals respire Essence normally, but also have a bonus called "Cruel Banquet"
Exalted Essence said:
Drawing might from blood and terror, an Abyssal may replenish their motes by inflicting a level of damage or committing an act that frightens, subdues, or angers the target. Draining or terrifying a trivial character restores 1 mote, an elite character restores 2, and a powerful character —such as another Exalt — restores 3. The Abyssal may benefit from Cruel Banquet only once per scene outside of combat.
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(It's worth noting here that motes go much further in Essence: a starting character has a mote pool of 5.)

Additionally, there is a charm called "Soul Drinking Bite" (which you will have in your starting build) which allows you to bite people to restore motes, and makes doing so also count as a full meal so it sustains you physically as well as spiritually. So you will absolutely be doing the vampire blood-drinking thing, that's part of what inspired this quest.
BlueHelix said:
Is there a Resonance?
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Sort of? It's not called Resonance, but you suffer the Great Curse whenever you acknowledge your mortal name, try and exist as one of the living, or violate a major intimacy or virtue. The Great Curse for Abyssals in Exalted Essence tends to manifest as their affinity for death taking the forefront: you mourn in graveyards, you obsess over ghosts and corpses, you try and make the living subservient to the dead, etc. Tbh I might adjust some of the Great Curse manifestations, because they're a bit lame and not as cool as the Resonance mechanics in 2e and 3e.
BlueHelix said:
Considering this is a modern world, the Sins of Life are gonna get really awkward considering how hard we're going to have to renounce our living name, etc. Same for maintaining positive pre-Death intimacies.
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Yeah, that might be challenging, though it's worth noting there's no penalty to maintaining pre-death intimacies, just penalties to trying to claim a place among the living. So you could maintain a mortal best friend as long as you play your cards right.

*okay, there's entities called Deathlords in WoD, but they're not at all the same as Exalted Deathlords. The equivalent to those is probably Malfeans, and yes, the overlaps in terminology will probably get confusing.
 
[x] Let these Foolish Ambitions Rise.
-[x]An ambitious Ventrue who quietly watched you scheme and backstab your way up the corporate ladder. Under her guidance, you've become a ruthless politicker (Moonshadow Caste)
-[x] Major Virtue: Ambition (To hold the power to shift society to your own whims)
-[x] Minor Virtue: Loyalty (Leila Harrow)
-[x] Minor Intimacy: The Sabbat (Loathing)
-[x] Abyssal Title: The Flowery Name Which is Writ on Gravestones

[X] Plan Master of the Damned
-[X] A scholarly Tremere who taught a class you took in undergrad. She recognized your keen mind and guided you through understanding truths both mundane and occult (Daybreak Caste)
-[X] Major Virtue: Wonder
-[X] Minor Virtue: Discipline
-[X] Minor Intimacy: I love discovering all the secrets held in the arcane
-[X] Abyssal Title: The Twice-Cursed Factotum

Any of the posted plans look like they could be cool, these are just my two favourites.
 
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[X] Plan: Frank Underwood
-[X] An ambitious Ventrue who silently watched you as you schemed and backstabbed your way to the top of the corporate hierarchy. Under her guidance, you have become a ruthless politician (Moonshadow Caste)
-[X] Major Virtue: Discipline
-[X] Minor Virtue: Ambition (Creation of a new vampiric society)
-[X] Minor Intimacy: Chaos Aversion: You detest disorder and lack of structure, believing that only through order and discipline can true greatness be achieved. This aversion motivates you to assert control where others fail.
-[X] Abyssal Title: The Architect of Darkness

[X] Let these Foolish Ambitions Rise.
-[X]An ambitious Ventrue who quietly watched you scheme and backstab your way up the corporate ladder. Under her guidance, you've become a ruthless politicker (Moonshadow Caste)
-[X] Major Virtue: Ambition (To hold the power to shift society to your own whims)
-[X] Minor Virtue: Loyalty (Leila Harrow)
-[X] Minor Intimacy: The Sabbat (Loathing)
-[X] Abyssal Title: The Flowery Name Which is Writ on Gravestones

It will be quite interesting to see how the vampire society will react to our attempt to usurp power.

[X] Plan Master of the Damned
 
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[X] Plan: Nyx Petridis
[X] A roguish Brujah who you impressed in a bar room brawl. She's spent the past five years honing your fighting instincts (Dusk Caste)
[X] Major Virtue: Courage
[X] Minor Virtue: Wonder
[X] Minor Intimacy: The Sabbat (Loathing)
[X] Abyssal Title: Lady of The Blood Soaked Shadow

[X] Plan: I'm Her
-[X] A roguish Brujah who you impressed in a bar room brawl. She's spent the past five years honing your fighting instincts (Dusk Caste)
-[X] Major Virtue: Compassion
-[X] Minor Virtue: Justice
-[X] Minor Aversion: Evil (Punish all evildoers)
-[X] Abyssal Title: Eight-fold Bringer of Final Mercy
 
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[X] Plan: I'm Her
-[X] A roguish Brujah who you impressed in a bar room brawl. She's spent the past five years honing your fighting instincts (Dusk Caste)
-[X] Major Virtue: Compassion
-[X] Minor Virtue: Justice
-[X] Minor Aversion: Evil (Punish all evildoers)
-[X] Abyssal Title: Eight-fold Bringer of Final Mercy
 
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MedievalParadox said:
So there's a chance it could amplify the effects of the Blood Bond? (or at least do that in practice.)
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Well probably not your blood bond, because you're one of the dead so enforcing Leila's power over you is not making the living subservient to the dead. But it might cause you to encourage the general practice of blood bonding and ghouling, given that it enforces a hierarchy of kindred over kine.

However, it's worth noting that the Great Curse triggers when you violate a major intimacy, and you have a major intimacy towards Leila, so you're probably going to act more in line with the blood bond if you want to avoid the Great Curse.
 
[X] Plan: I'm Her
-[X] A roguish Brujah who you impressed in a bar room brawl. She's spent the past five years honing your fighting instincts (Dusk Caste)
-[X] Major Virtue: Compassion
-[X] Minor Virtue: Justice
-[X] Minor Aversion: Evil (Punish all evildoers)
-[X] Abyssal Title: Eight-fold Bringer of Final Mercy

[X] Plan: Somebody Call 911?
-[X] A roguish Brujah who you impressed in a bar room brawl. She's spent the past five years honing your fighting instincts (Dusk Caste)
-[X] Major Virtue: Courage
-[X] Minor Virtue: Justice
-[X] Minor Intimacy: Best Friend (Best Friend)
-[X] Abyssal Title: Strider Of The Maelstrom Of Life And Death
 
[X] Plan: Somebody Call 911?
-[X] A roguish Brujah who you impressed in a bar room brawl. She's spent the past five years honing your fighting instincts (Dusk Caste)
-[X] Major Virtue: Courage
-[X] Minor Virtue: Justice
-[X] Minor Intimacy: Best Friend (Best Friend)
-[X] Abyssal Title: She Who Strides The Maelstrom Of Life And Death

Edit: Uhhh, I guess I should shill for the vibes of my plan too, I guess?

I explained the more mechanical reasoning behind it here, insomuch that I'm gunning for the character to work as an EMT/Paramedic, because it gives us a bunch of options to explain why our mortal life sucks so much in backstory ("hey why does your apartment look like shit" "I just got off a 72 hour shift and we live in fucking Boston"), a more nocturnal lifestyle, and options to respond to supernatural emergencies / hear about weird stuff happening so we can maintain the Masquerade (if that's what we want to happen). We might not be able to keep our job, but the contacts remain -- emergency service workers love to gossip (so long as it doesn't break HIPAA!). It's one of the things that fuels them, alongside caffeine and nicotine, lol.

But in terms of vibes, I don't want to go all-in on being a "vamp." LIke, I want to deal with vampire society, absolutely, but we're not a vampire, we're an Abyssal, an effective demigod of death and murder. As such, I'd like to lean in on that to a degree -- I'm sure being a corporate backstabber or similar has its appeal, but it's not exactly the vibes that I want as an Exalt in WoD. Like, I'm know all the Castes can kick ass, but I'm not really interested in carefully climbing our way up through Boston through political shenanigans. These might be the Final Nights and things are in uproar, but even then going our way through that route just takes a lot of time, vibes-wise. It's why I favor the Dusk or Daybreak Castes -- it gives us more options, at least imo.

As for my plan specifically, QM explaining what an Abyssal is here makes me feel a lot more confident about it. I really like characters who balance life and death, and here we have a lot more room to do so. No Deathlords giving us orders, no Monstrance, Great Curse / Resonance manifestations are a bit more ameliorated. We're never going to be a proper living person again, but I'm a greedy person -- I want to hold on to as many things as I can. A story where a demigod of death and murder does bloody work in the darkness but also still has a semblance of a connection to others not bound by blood, straddling life and death appeals to me.

(Narratives where a normal person sees one of their friends change rapidly and descend into the supernatural to follow them are also a classic -- I want to see the kind of person who managed to maintain a friendship with a ghoul, but also the kind of person who qualified for an Abyssal Exaltation. But also -- a friendship stronger than death. That sounds cool as fuck.)

(But also, I like punchface characters, so I'll vote for I'm Her as well)

[X] Plan: I'm Her
-[X] A roguish Brujah who you impressed in a bar room brawl. She's spent the past five years honing your fighting instincts (Dusk Caste)
-[X] Major Virtue: Compassion
-[X] Minor Virtue: Justice
-[X] Minor Aversion: Evil (Punish all evildoers)
-[X] Abyssal Title: Eight-fold Bringer of Final Mercy
 
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[X] Plan: Rose blooms at midnight
-[X] A charming Toreador who was taken by your music. She made you a ghoul after hearing your band play once, and has had you perform private shows at Elysium since (Midnight Caste)
-[X] Major Virtue: Compassion
-[X] Minor Virtue: Wonder
-[X] Minor Intimacy: The Sabbat (Loathing)
-[X] Abyssal Title: One who blooms among the bloody roses
Approval voting:
[X] Plan: Cute Nerd Wizard
[X] Plan Compassionate is the Grave
 
[X] Let these Foolish Ambitions Rise.
-[X]An ambitious Ventrue who quietly watched you scheme and backstab your way up the corporate ladder. Under her guidance, you've become a ruthless politicker (Moonshadow Caste)
-[X] Major Virtue: Ambition (To hold the power to shift society to your own whims)
-[X] Minor Virtue: Loyalty (Leila Harrow)
-[X] Minor Intimacy: The Sabbat (Loathing)
-[X] Abyssal Title: The Flowery Name Which is Writ on Gravestones
 
[X] Let these Foolish Ambitions Rise.
-[X]An ambitious Ventrue who quietly watched you scheme and backstab your way up the corporate ladder. Under her guidance, you've become a ruthless politicker (Moonshadow Caste)
-[X] Major Virtue: Ambition (To hold the power to shift society to your own whims)
-[X] Minor Virtue: Loyalty (Leila Harrow)
-[X] Minor Intimacy: The Sabbat (Loathing)
-[X] Abyssal Title: The Flowery Name Which is Writ on Gravestones
 
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I'm kinda surprised people are going for the title I put in the example plan. I meant it as a little bit of a joke, what with literally putting the phrase "Flowery Name" in your flowery name. But if that's what the people want, I'm down for it
 
[X] Plan Master of the Damned
-[X] A scholarly Tremere who taught a class you took in undergrad. She recognized your keen mind and guided you through understanding truths both mundane and occult (Daybreak Caste)
-[X] Major Virtue: Wonder
-[X] Minor Virtue: Discipline
-[X] Minor Intimacy: I love discovering all the secrets held in the arcane
-[X] Abyssal Title: The Twice-Cursed Factotum

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I am obligated to like all things Exalted.

Also better not to suck up too much to Ventrues.

[X] Plan: Somebody Call 911?
-[X] A roguish Brujah who you impressed in a bar room brawl. She's spent the past five years honing your fighting instincts (Dusk Caste)
-[X] Major Virtue: Courage
-[X] Minor Virtue: Justice
-[X] Minor Intimacy: Best Friend (Best Friend)
-[X] Abyssal Title: Strider Of The Maelstrom Of Life And Death

[X] Plan: I'm Her
-[X] A roguish Brujah who you impressed in a bar room brawl. She's spent the past five years honing your fighting instincts (Dusk Caste)
-[X] Major Virtue: Compassion
-[X] Minor Virtue: Justice
-[X] Minor Aversion: Evil (Punish all evildoers)
-[X] Abyssal Title: Eight-fold Bringer of Final Mercy
 
[X] Plan: Daring Shadow
-[X] A secretive Malkavian who caught you robbing the wrong house. She's turned you from a common burglar to a silent killer (Day Caste)
-[X] Major Virtue: Courage
-[X] Minor Virtue: Ambition (To not be caught again)
-[X] Minor Intimacy: Pride in my skills
-[X] Abyssal Title: A Hoarse Whisper Before the Grave

This seems like an interesting quest idea, pity people don't seem interested in a Day Caste, dealing with a Malkavian could be so interesting.
 
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[X] Plan: Rose blooms at midnight
[X] Plan: Daring Shadow
[X] Plan: Somebody Call 911?
[X] Plan: I'm Her
[X] Plan Compassionate is the Grave
 
[X] Plan: Somebody Call 911?
-[X] A roguish Brujah who you impressed in a bar room brawl. She's spent the past five years honing your fighting instincts (Dusk Caste)
-[X] Major Virtue: Courage
-[X] Minor Virtue: Justice
-[X] Minor Intimacy: Best Friend (Best Friend)
-[X] Abyssal Title: Strider Of The Maelstrom Of Life And Death
 
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